Wire tying machines



June 19, 1962 R. D. SANSUM WIRE TYING MACHINES Filed Dec. 9, 1959 2Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ROBERT- D. SANSUM June 19, 1962 R. D. SANSUMWIRE TYING MACHINES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 9, 1959 I NvENToR ROBERTD. SANS uM United States Patent Ofi 3,039,380 WIRE TYING MACHINES RobertDavid Sansum, Hounslow, England, assignor to Gerrard Industries Limited,Brentford, and Rylands Brothers Limited, Warrington, England Filed Dec.9, 1959, Ser. No. 858,405

Claims priority, application Great Britain Oct. 23, 1959 Claims. (Cl.100-12) This irvention relates to improvements in machines for makingwire ties about coils of material such as wire or ro In our Patent No.2,957,406, we have described a machine which has a work head which ismoved vertically into the centre of a coil of material laid upon atable. The machine feeds out wire beneath the coil, the free end of thewire is wrapped about the material and is inserted in a gripper. Thegripper is closed by operation of a manual lever; tension is applied tothe tying wire and the gripper is rotated to form a twisted tie.

It is the object of the present invention to obviate the necessity formanual operation of the gripper and thus make for greater automaticityand speed for operation of such a machine.

According to the invention we provide a wire tying machine as otherwisegenerally described in the above numbered patent wherein a stationaryabutment actuates push-rod means to free the gripper on a downwardmovement of the work-head and wherein means actuated by operation of thewire tensioning means causes the gripper to grasp the free end of wireinserted therein.

In preferred forms of apparatus according to the invention the push-rodmeans is operatively connected to a yoke engaging the gripper which isspring-biased towards a position in which it causes the gripper to graspthe wire.

In such preferred forms of apparatus it is also convenient to provide alatching member which is engaged with the push-rod means on a downwardmovement of the workhead and which is released by a pawl connected to adrive shaft of the tensioning means when that shaft is rotated in thesense to tension the tying wire. The latching member is preferablyspring-biased towards the position in which it engages the push-rodmeans and may be formed with a charnfered face for engagement with thepawl connected to the drive shaft of the tensioning means.

The above and other features of the invention may be more clearlycomprehended from the following description of a particular form ofmachine in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the work-head of the machine,

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the parts of such workhead which includethe novel features of the invention,

FIG. 3 is an end elevation in the direction of the arrow A shown uponFIG. 2.

Referring first to FIG. 1 the work-head 1 of a machine for tying wireabout a coil of wire or like material is carried by a post 31 that isslidable vertically within a guide 2 forming part of a vertically fixedcarriage 3.

The head includes a feed tube -4 for tying wire E, which wire is ledfrom a drum (not shown) of conventional form and forming no part of thepresent invention.

Grooved rollers 5, which are intermeshed, are driven by a shaft 6 by amotor 7 in one sense to feed wire E from the work-head and in theopposite sense to draw wire back into the head and apply tension to it.

The work-head 1 is shifted up and down by means of a plurality of pins32 carried by a plate 3 3 that is fixed to the post 31, which pins meshwith the teeth 34 of a toothed quadrant 8 driven by a connecting rod 9from a ice crank 10. fixed to a shaft 11 which may be turned by afoot-pedal or by a power drive derived from a motor 12.

The wire B after passing between the rollers 5 is led out through anaperture 13 in a twisting block 14, and as seen in FIG. 2 it is passedthrough a slot 15 in a turn-table 16 to encompass (in torroidal fashion)the material of a coil lying upon that table.

The free end D of the wire E is entered in a slot 17 in the twistingblock 14 beneath the rearwardly sloped teeth of a gripper 1 8 (FIG. 2)which is slidable (to the right as drawn) in a wedge shaped groove tohold the wire against withdrawal.

Movement of the gripper to the right (-FIG. 2) is attained by theactuation of a yoke 19 pivoted to the head at 20 and provided with anextended arm 21.

The arm 21 is engaged in a slot in the upper end of a lever 22 which ispivoted to the head at 23:.

When the lever 22 is moved to the right (FIG. 2) the yoke 19 draws thegripper 18 up the wedge shaped slot against the tension of a spring 24to release the end D of the wire E.

The lever 22 is operated by means of a push-rod 25 when it contacts acam 26 fixed to the guide housing 2 as the work-head descends oncompletion of a tying operation.

The push-rod 25 is maintained in the position shown in the drawings bymeans of a spring pressed latching member 27.

The latching member 27 is formed with a cranked foot 28 (FIG. 3) whichhas a chamfered edge which is con tacted by a pawl 29 carried by theshaft 6.

When the shaft 6 is driven in the sense which causes the rollers 5 tofeed out wire the pawl 29 lifts freely over the foot 28 of the latchingmember 27, but when the shaft 6 rotates in the sense to draw wire backinto the head the pawl 29 engages the foot 28 and trees the latchingmember 27 from the push-rod 25.

When the push-rod 25- is freed the spring 24 takes charge and close thegripper 18.

The head of the machine is shown in the position and operative conditionwhere wire E has been fed out through the slot 15, has been passed (byhand) around the material of a coil and has been entered beneath theteeth of the opened gripper 18.

When the shaft 6 is rotated to draw back surplus wire into the head andtension it about the material of the coil the gripper 18 will be closedas above described.

A twisting movement of the twisting block 1 4 is initiated when adesired tension is attained and on completion of the twisting movementthe wire extending from the aperture 13 is cut by a cam-operated blade30.

The head -1 is now moved downwardly and contact of the push-rod '25 withthe cam 26 releases the gripper 18, so that the end I) of the wire Eremains as part of the twisted tie and does not fall to foul or jam anyof the mechanism of the machine.

The gripper 18 remains open as the head 1 is again raised into theposition shown in the drawings and at this time wire is being fed outthrough another slot (such as 15) of the turntable 16 which has in themeantime been indexed to bring another section of the coil into tyingposition.

After wrapping of wire about the material of the coil and inserting thefree end beneath the open gripper 18, the cycle of operations abovedescribed is repeated.

I claim:

1. In a machine for tying wire about articles, atable for supporting anarticle, a workhead movable vertically relatively to the table andincluding a gripper to grip the wire, means carried in the workhead tofeed out tying wire to encircle an article on the table with a loop ofwire,

means to raise the workhead to bring said gripper to position wherebythe free end of wire passed about an article maybe gripped by saidgripper, means to reverse said feedout means for tightening the loop ofwire about the article, means for revolving-the gripper to form atwisted tie, and means to sever the wire from the feed-out means, theimprovement comprising: means on said work head operati vely connectedwith said gripper to actuate said gripper, means connected with saidgripper actuating means and operated by the reverse operation of saidfeed-out means for causing the gripper to grasp the free end of a wireinserted therein, and a stationary abutment in the path of the gripperactuating means for actuating the same upon downward movement of theworkhead to cause the gripper to release the wire end.

2. In a machine according to claim 2, said gripper actuating meansincluding a push rod on said workhead connected with said gripper andengageable with said stationary abutment, and spring means urging saidgripper toward wire gripping position.

3. In a machine according to claim 2, said means connected with saidgripper actuating means including a latching member engageable with saidpush rod upon movement of the latter by engagement thereof with saidstationary abutment for retaining the push rod in the gripper releasingposition in opposition to said spring means.

4. In a machine according to claim 3, said means carried in the'workhead to feed out tying wire including a drive shaft, a pawl carriedby said drive shaft of the feed out means to disengage the latchingmember from the push-rod upon reverse operation of said feed-out means.

5. In a machine according to claim 4, a spring biasing the latchingmember toward engagement with the push rod.

- References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,674,181 Jones Apr. 6, 1954 2,770,183 Hanscon Nov. 13, 1956 2,742,851Fryer Apr. 24, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 579,537 Germany July 1, 1933

